“THE city manager’s appointment is currently null and void and all documents currently signed by him are not valid.”
This is the conclusion made by councillor Izak Berg, national chairman of the Independent Ratepayers Association of SA (IRASA). His argument is based on the fact that Ekurhuleni city manager Khaya Ngema’s contract, according to him, has expired.
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Berg issued a statement showing documents from the Johannesburg High Court that indicate Ngema’s employment with the metro terminated on May 17, 2012.
The document, dated August 12, 2015, was made final on August 21.
The document goes on to show that the executive council of the metro “purported to extend the employment relationship between the city manager and the Ekurhuleni metro on September 27, 2012.”
But this extension “occurred without compliance with Section 54A (4) of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000.”
This amended bill states that:
If the post of municipal manager becomes vacant, the municipality must:
(a) advertise the post nationally to attract a pool of candidates nationwide, and
(b) select from the pool of candidates a suitable person who complies with the prescribed requirements for appointment to the post.
Section 57 (6) (a) of the same act also provides that the employment contract for a municipal manager must be for a fixed term of employment up to a maximum of five (5) years, not exceeding a period ending one year after the election of the next council of the municipality.
“The council was elected on May 18, 2011. This means the employment contract of the city manager expired in May 2012 by operation of the law,” Berg stated.
Further, Section 54 A (3) of the MSA provides that any contract concluded with the city manager is null and void if the appointment was made in contravention of this act.
“Consequently, if the city manager attends a council or mayoral committee meeting as accounting officer after the mentioned expiry date of his employment contract, the responsibilities articulated above cannot be legally performed. It effectively means that the council or the executive mayor with his mayoral committee will, in such circumstances, be dysfunctional and thus not be legally constituted. Any decision taken at such meeting/s can be challenged on the basis of not being legally valid,” Berg added.
“The last council meeting and all council meetings and documents signed by him since his contract was renewed in 2015 is null and void and needs to be condoned by a full council meeting. We also need to investigate why an official (city manager) was allowed to travel to France on ratepayers’ money when he is not officially employed by the EMM,” Berg concluded.
During August’s council meeting, speaker of the house, councillor Patricia Khumalo, rejected the request by Berg and the DA to deal with this issue, on the basis that it was still a draft order.
Instead, Khumalo said a special council meeting would be called in order to deal with this matter.
Berg also said he would forward the document to the MEC for local government and the relevant departments dealing with local government.
